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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5430815" data-attributes="member: 386">I suggest the following framework:1. PCs stumble upon a town destroyed by worshippers of Demogorgon.  Religion checks should be required to determine the nature of the threat - this includes the abilities and general tendencies of Beast Cultists.  It should be obvious that the force is pretty powerful.2. PCs find signs that point to the cultists heading to the next town down the line.  Challenge 1: how to get there before the cultists do?  There should be a number of possibilities; I'd make this a player challenge.  That is, players should be presented with different options (by describing the environment) and they can pick one.  At that point a skill challenge might be called for.3. PCs must recruit allies for the confrontation.  I would pre-prep the different allies they can gather - their numbers and qualities.  Then I would give the leaders some motivations.  Then I'd run skill challenges to see what happens.4. Actually, scrap #2.  I'd set up a little valley of connected towns and pre-determine the cultist's general method - which towns they are going to attack and when, how long and where they will rest, any allies the cultists gain via sacrifice and summoning demons, etc.  (This will change as the situation is altered by the actions of the PCs.)  Most of #2 can still come into play, but the PCs will need to determine where the cultists are going - via tracking.  (Fast elves and half-elves with Light Step can come in handy here.)5. Have the PCs distribute allies to different towns as the cultists strike out in different places.  To determine what happens when cultists and allies fight off-screen, make a level check: 1d20 + the group's level vs. 10 + the level of the opposing group.  Instead of making it an opposed check, have both try to achieve a specific goal.  You'll end up with 4 results:Ally Success, Cult Failure: Allies kill most of the cultists or push them back.Ally Failure, Cult Success: Allies are killed and the cult ransacks a town.Ally Failure, Cult Failure: Allies fail to defeat the cultists but the cultists are pushed back.Ally Success, Cult Success: Allies kill many of the cultists but a few slip into town and burn it down.Or something like that.This would be a little mini-campaign that would require some prep.  I suggest going to Hexographer, making a map with a small scale per hex, putting towns down with an eye to forcing players to have to make meaningful decisions, and adding some other interesting features (like a wounded hippogriff that the PCs might be able to tame, or ruins with an altar to Demogorgon that the cultists can use to summon demons).</blockquote>

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